1. Field of Invention
The present invention pertains to the field of workstation management. More particularly, this invention relates to a system architecture for wide-area workstation management.
2. Art Background
A variety of workstations exist that provide users with the capability of executing a wide variety of applications. Examples of workstations are numerous and includes workstations implemented according to a variety of heterogeneous computing platforms. A computing platform is typically characterized by a particular variety of operation system and/or processor architecture. Examples of workstation platforms include Windows platforms, Macintosh platforms, Unix platforms, etc.
It is often desirable to enable users of workstations to access the resources of other workstations. For example, it is often desirable to enable a user of one workstation to access files and run applications that reside on other workstations. The acts of accessing files, applications, or other resources on other workstations may be referred to as workstation sharing. It may also be desirable to provide workstation sharing among heterogeneous workstations that are widely distributed geographically.
Some prior systems for providing workstation sharing are highly platform-dependent. Such systems usually are not readily adaptable for sharing among heterogeneous workstations, i.e. workstations that implement different computing platforms. Other prior systems for providing workstation sharing may not support sharing among workstations that are widely distributed geographically.